Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s not often they have to share rooms.

They’re coming in late to this case, and the hotel in the rural town only had so many vacant rooms for the night, so Morgan finds himself sharing with Spencer. This is normally not a problem—Spencer is his go-to choice when sharing rooms—but it’s 2 in the morning, and Spencer has yet to sleep. They landed just an hour ago, and Morgan was really looking forward to collapsing on his bed and getting some rest. Spencer doesn’t seem to share the sentiment.

Morgan gets it, to an extent. Their late entry to the case leaves them scrambling to catch up on the details as they try to identify their unsub before they strike again. Normally, Morgan wouldn’t be bothered by the dim glow of the hotel lamp and might even be impressed with Spencer’s dedication, but right now he just wants to sleep and finds himself unable to. He shifts in the bed, turning to subtly watch Spencer and his new cat, Iris.

Morgan hasn’t decided what he thinks about the long-haired, white cat yet. Prentiss swears by the cat's judgment, and Spencer talks to her like she’s another human being, seeming to have semi-intelligent conversations with her. Hotch seems to barely tolerate having her around, only not saying anything for Spencer’s sake, and JJ doesn’t take Iris seriously, despite Prentiss and Spencer’s behavior. Garcia loves her, if only for the cute outfits she continues to buy, even if Iris doesn’t like to wear them. Morgan remains undecided but considers himself open to the idea of her being an intelligent animal. You can’t deny that she saved Spencer’s life, but Morgan finds himself studying them, wanting more.

Iris appears to be napping on the table, undisturbed by Spencer’s late-night antics, but her ear twitches with every rustle of the pages, so Morgan thinks she’s not quite as out of it as she wants you to believe.

“You planning on getting any sleep tonight, pretty boy?” Morgan can’t help but ask, wondering if Spencer's resting will help ease his restless mind.

“In just a few minutes,” Spencer replies distractedly.

Morgan sighs. That’s a no, then. He closes his eyes and tries to ignore the light of the lamp, but for some reason, the dim glow is more annoying than any bright, overhead light could be. He resigns himself to a sleepless night and decides to spend the hours profiling Iris. It sounds stupid, even to his exhausted mind, but forcing himself to stay awake with a task would be easier in the long run if he’s giving up on getting sleep.

A few minutes pass, and Iris stretches, padding across the table to Spencer. He acknowledges her in the same distracted way he had responded to Morgan, petting her gently. She meows at him, and he replies absentmindedly once more. After a few more failed attempts, she plopped herself down on top of the files he was looking through, which seemed to shift his focus, starting to snap him out of the case-induced haze he had fallen into.

“Oh, hello, Iris. What do you need?” Spencer questions sincerely.

Morgan watches amused as she lays there and yawns widely in his face. Spencer laughs, reaching out and scratching at her ears.

“Are you tired? You can go to sleep if you want.” Spencer says, missing the point entirely. Morgan can’t tell with her back turned to him, but he’d wager a guess to say she looked pretty annoyed.

Iris heaves herself up, climbs onto his shoulders, and starts licking at his hair. This seems to pull Spencer even more out of his thoughts, and after a moment she stops as he blinks around at the hotel room, as if seeing it again for the first time. He yawns, and it’s like he’s settled fully back into his body, stretching out from the uncomfortable position he has been hunched over in.

“Why am I so tired?” He asks, like he can’t begin to understand why. “It’s not even that late.”

Iris slides off his shoulders, and his eyes follow her as she hops up onto a dresser by the clock. “Oh,” he states, sounding genuinely shocked, “It is that late.”

Iris meows softly and hops to the bed, sitting patiently at the foot of the mattress. Spencer stands, stretches again, and turns off the lamp, plunging the room into darkness. Morgan hears him shuffling across the room and flopping down onto the bed, eventually settling under the covers. After a few minutes, everything falls silent, except for the occasional soft snore, and Morgan finds himself able to fall asleep.

It doesn’t last long, unfortunately, and the red numbers of the digital clock yell an angry 3:30 am at him from atop the dresser. Morgan sighs, rolling over and trying to figure out what woke him. After a few moments, he realizes that it’s the small sounds of distress coming from the other bed, and Morgan shoots up into a sitting position. His eyes land on Spencer, and with the moonlight streaming in through the blinds, he can make out Spencer’s face scrunched in distress.

He swings his legs over the side of the bed, going to stand when he sees Iris, who is staring him down from where she stands on the bed between him and Spencer. She stares at him, unblinkingly, until she has decided it looks like he isn’t going to move again, and turns her attention to Spencer. He lets out another pitiful noise, and Iris settles herself against his shoulder, purring reassuringly. She rubs her head gently against his face, purring all the while.

Morgan watches as Spencer calms, reaching to wrap her in his arms, and she licks at his hair again. Half asleep, Spencer murmurs something to her, and Morgan swears she glows. He blinks a few times, wondering if he’s seeing things in his sleep-deprived haze, but sure enough, the white cat seems to radiate a gentle, blue glow. Spencer doesn’t seem alarmed, but rather reassured, and falls right back asleep, seemingly more at peace. Within minutes of Morgan waking up to Spencer’s distress, Spencer is asleep again.

Iris turns to stare back at him, staring at him with her unmoving gaze as she continues to glow softly. He nods at her as if to communicate his trust and his thanks, and she nods at him in return before turning back to Spencer. Morgan lays back down in bed, still somewhat in disbelief, but the soft blue glow fills the room, and he finds it easy to go back to sleep.

In the morning, he isn’t sure he believes what he saw, and he doesn’t tell anyone about it, not even Spencer. But Iris gives him an unblinking stare, and it solidifies the experience in his mind, any indecision gone from his mind. He may not understand what had happened, but there is no doubt in my mind that Iris is doing what she can to care for Spencer, and Morgan trusts anyone who has that same goal in mind.

So the next time Prentiss says to hear Iris out, Derek agrees with her, and every time Iris doesn’t like something, he treats it with a little more caution. Hotch has started to look at him curiously, but Morgan doesn’t mind. One day Hotch will experience something that will change his opinion of Iris.

He’s sure of it. 

Chapter Text

When Spencer starts carrying around a laser pointer key chain on his messenger bag for Iris, JJ thinks it’s cute—fun even. She never expected it to save her life.

She and Spencer are taken hostage by the three murderers they are attempting to apprehend, leaving them stranded in some sort of basement. Spencer had taken a nasty hit to his head when one of their unsubs had gotten annoyed that he hadn’t stopped trying to negotiate with them. JJ holds his unconscious form close to her as they sit together in their tiny prison, waiting to see what the unsubs do next.

It’s cold down in the cement block basement, and they are confined to the corner away from any doors or windows by a rather sturdy chainlink fence. JJ still has her purse, and Spencer still has his messenger bag, only missing vital things that could’ve helped them escape, like their phones and guns. She doesn’t quite understand why they were left with personal belongings, but she figures that they were abducted to be bait or simply to have them out of the way. Their captors certainly don’t care about their health, considering the way they rendered Spencer unconscious and haven’t been down in a couple of hours to provide them with water or food.

Iris is also here. JJ figures they didn’t consider her enough of a threat to get rid of her and were probably annoyed by her behavior enough to toss her in with them. She had hissed angrily and swiped at one of the unsubs when they hit Spencer over the butt of their gun, and they treated her not too gently when tossing her into the makeshift cage by the scruff of her neck.

JJ had felt bad for the poor creature and checked her over for any signs of damage, but Iris looked fine. She seemed to enjoy the attention for a bit before walking over to check on Spencer. She tucks herself against Spencer’s side as JJ desperately tries to stop the head wound from bleeding with the small pack of tissues from her purse, a pile of bloody waste developing next to them. Eventually, the bleeding slowed, and JJ dug through his long strands of hair to check on the wound, which seemed smaller than before.

Maybe it wasn’t as bad as she remembered. Head wounds did tend to bleed a lot, and through her haze of panic, she must have mentally exaggerated the severity of the situation. She sighs in relief, looking over at Iris, who purrs happily. JJ finds herself smiling at the scene in front of her, despite the situation at hand.

Both Prentiss and Morgan have had an experience that has led them to trust and communicate with Iris on nearly the same level as Spencer. JJ doesn’t know the exact details of what made them change their mind, but she definitely agrees that Iris is good for Spencer. There’s been a small, but obvious change about Spencer: just the way he seems more well-rested, more well-taken care of, and more steady on his feet. She is sure Iris has something to do with it. And looking at the way she stays firmly by his side even as he is asleep cements that in her mind.

She leans Spencer gently against the wall, getting up once more to check the fence's stability, not wanting to feel helpless and trapped even though she’d checked it twice before. Spencer will need serious medical help at some point soon, and she doesn’t want to have to sit here any longer than necessary. After a few minutes, Iris pads up to her, rubbing against her leg and staring up at her expectantly. JJ smiles again, but it's sadder this time. Poor Iris can probably sense her distress and is trying to comfort her the way she would Spencer.

She reaches down and pets her a few times, but then goes back to checking the fence. It’s a shame that it runs up to the ceiling, or maybe she could’ve climbed over. Suddenly, she hears a dragging noise and freezes, her eye darting towards the stairs to the door, wondering if it’s the unsubs coming back. After a few moments of seeing no movement, she hears the noise again and turns to find Iris pulling on Spencer’s messenger bag.

“Iris!” She scolds gently, her voice firm but quiet. “What are you doing?”

She gets closer and crouches down to investigate, realizing that Iris is tugging on the laser pointer keychain attached to the bag. As she tries to break it free it drags across the cement floor, resulting in the strange sound.

“Iris, this is not a good time to play, okay?” JJ says in the same way you might explain something to a small child. Iris stops for a moment and looks at her with a distinct glare of disapproval. JJ can’t help but feel like she’s been scolded by her mother, and Iris starts tugging at the laser pointer again. JJ sighs and unclips it for her. Maybe with her occupied, she can actually think enough to form an escape plan.

But seconds later, she sees the laser pointer's red dot at her feet, and she looks over at Iris, starting to feel exasperated. “What?” She asks, a hard edge in her voice. She is stressed and tired and worried about Spencer and the rest of the team. She doesn't have the mental capacity to deal with a cat's antics.

Iris stares at her for a moment before moving the red dot along the floor. JJ follows its trajectory until it stops at something outside of their cage. Iris looks pointedly up at her and then back at the item on the other side of the chain link. JJ steps closer, crouching next to Iris, her eyes catching at what she is pointing to. It’s a small, thin piece of wire, maybe about the length of her hand. She blinks at it, and then over at Iris.

“Okay, so what?”

Iris stares at her for a few more moments, and she’s starting to suspect that Iris is feeling just as irritated with her as she was with the cat just a few moments ago. Again, the red dot shifts and JJ follows it across the cage until it lands on the large padlock on the door. JJ’s mind reels as the pieces slot into place.

“You want me to pick the lock?” She asks, somewhat rhetorically, seeing as the cat can’t answer. But Iris drops the laser pointer, rubbing against JJ’s legs and purring enthusiastically. JJ pets her in return on autopilot, trying to process how Spencer’s cat just communicated an intelligent request. She’s never going to question Spencer when he talks about her intelligence ever again.

It kind of makes sense when she thinks about it. Iris was low to the ground and picked up on the small piece of metal that had blended in with the gray concrete from JJ’s height. Since it was too far away for her to reach and she couldn’t get around the chain link, she asked JJ to get it. JJ sits on the floor, sticking her arm through to try and grab the thin wire. When that doesn’t work, she lays down, stretching out as far as she can, which gets her closer, but not quite close enough. She pulls her arm back through with a huff and sits up. That piece of metal is no good to any of them if she can’t reach it. Iris appears at her side, holding a pen in her mouth, and JJ takes it from her, following the line of the thought.

Lying back down and stretching her arm back through, she is able to use the pen’s extra length to drag the thin wire toward her until she has it in her grasp. She pulls it through, shoving herself into a sitting position and cheering internally. She grins down at Iris, who purrs once more. JJ presses kisses all over Iris’ face, whispering, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Iris licks her face, and JJ feels hope kindling in her chest for the first time since they were captured.

Now, if only she can remember what Spencer taught her about picking locks. 

Chapter Text

It may be interesting to note that while other members of the BAU team learned to trust Iris through situations that highlighted her intelligence, Hotch learned to trust her through a situation that highlighted his incompetence.

You see, Hotch was starting to get tired of that cat.

He only let Spencer take it back with him after that bizarre case in Washington because he didn’t want a fight. He was starting to regret that decision. He should’ve known since the moment it hissed at him.

Garcia was on board with the idea immediately, spouting something about a team mascot and running out to dump company funds into toys and clothes. Hotch foolishly assumed her enthusiasm for it would be temporary, especially when it refused to wear the purchased items. He was wrong.

Spencer, of course, treated it worryingly like another member of their team from the moment he took it with him, chatting with it like it just might give a response. After it had nearly embarrassed the whole team with its outburst on that case in South Carolina, Hotch was sure that the others would begin to side with him. However, Prentiss seemed to think that it saved Spencer’s life, and Spencer had somehow trained it to give semi-coherent responses in the form of yes/no answers.

Now Prentiss was arguing that they should consider the cat’s opinion when solving cases. Hotch feels his irritation rise when the cat suggests—if he can bear to call it that—their unsub be a student. When she ends up being right and they catch him in record time, well, lucky guess. He asks Spencer to get her registered with the FBI officially, hoping that he can get rid of the cat without it being his fault, but Spencer just comes back raving about her success, and he knows he’s failed once again.

Morgan was next. He stops Hotch from disturbing the cat as it sleeps in one of the only free chairs after spending the night sharing a room with Spencer. His only explanation? Spencer had a rough night. Hotch was sympathetic towards that—perhaps he would give Spencer an easier task today—but he didn’t see why that applied to the cat. But Hotch doesn’t want a pointless argument and goes to sit on the other side of the room. He doesn’t want to be near it anyway.

Hotch knows he’s screwed when JJ falls prey to its charm as well. She and Spencer get kidnapped by a group of three unsubs, but they escape before the team even has time to find out where they’ve been taken. Spencer is taken to the hospital to treat his wounds, but it ends up not being as bad as they looked, and JJ spends the entire time she’s being checked on raving about Iris’ intelligence.

It’s not that Hotch has anything against cats—or even Iris specifically. It’s just frustrating that his team is starting to consider her opinions over his own, as he’s not the one who is a certified profiler. So he grits his teeth, and the pressure builds over the next couple of cases until he feels like he can’t stand it anymore. And that’s when he’s reminded why they work as a team.

“Hotch,” Spencer starts to say after they’ve finished their brief, getting ready to split up and head out into the city. He looks nervous, like he wants to say something but already knows the answer. “About my assignment…”

Hotch sighs, letting some of the frustration into his voice now that he knows Spencer has picked up on it. Apparently, he hadn’t hidden it as well as he thought. The rest of the team is lingering around, trying to make it seem like they weren’t listening in. “Would you like to be assigned a partner instead of going by yourself?” Hotch questions, even though he knows it’s not that.

“No, I have Iris with me,” Spencer says like that’s comparable to a second gun-carrying human being. Hotch ignores the team's lack of reaction at the statement. You would think none of them cared for their youngest member, with the way they were fine with him going out with only his cat. “I’m just not sure about the gas station.” He explains. “It doesn’t seem safe.”

“What about it makes you say that?”

“Well, Ir—“

“And you better give me a valid reason, not just that Iris doesn’t like it.” Hotch cuts him off, a borderline snarl in his voice, and Spencer snaps his mouth shut.

Spencer’s eyes drop to the ground, pressing his mouth into a thin line. “Never mind,” he says quietly and takes a step back.

Hotch sighs as the team comes to Spencer’s defense, voices overlapping as they air their complaints. This is exactly what he had wanted to avoid. “Look,” he says, silencing everyone. “I have nothing against Iris,” he explains. Morgan looks like he doesn’t believe him, and Prentiss looks offended on the cat’s behalf, but he doesn’t let that deter him. “It’s just that you all are starting to act like you value her opinions over mine, and it’s not a sentiment I appreciate. May I remind you that I did not become the leader of this team without serious training and need you all to trust me? If you have complaints, I am willing to discuss them with you after we’ve caught our unsub. Which—if I need to remind you—has bombed three buildings in the past two weeks, and it's looking to do it again? So, if you don’t mind, listen to me and not the cat, and let’s get to work.”

Hotch is paired up with JJ, who does a great job of staying professional and on task, even if he suspects she’s also upset with his outburst. He’ll have to apologize to the team later when everyone is not in a high-stress situation. It’s only about an hour later that they get word from the local fire station that the unsub had struck again, exploding an old gas station. JJ stares over at Hotch as he hangs up the call, promising to be there shortly.

“The old gas station?” She questions, a tremble in her voice. He can’t tell through his own emotions whether it's in rage or distress. “Isn’t that where Spencer was going to investigate?”

“Let’s go.” He says, keeping his voice firm. “It’s a 10-minute drive.”

He drives, and he keeps his hands steady and his mind calm because there’s no way he killed a member of his team over some stupid jealousy with a cat. He swerves onto the scene and nearly yells at one of the firefighters trying to find out where Spencer is. They say they haven’t seen anyone matching his description, but the fire is still too out of control to go searching for anyone in the burning rubble, so they’re not sure if there are any casualties.

JJ calls Morgan and Prentiss and asks if they’ve heard from him. They have not. Hotch takes a deep breath and then has to collect himself, so he walks across the street and tries not to collapse. He doesn’t cry because he can’t. If he cries, it’ll mean that he really went and got Spencer killed, and he doesn’t know how to accept that.

He doesn’t know what he’d tell Spencer’s new adopted family, that he had so readily encouraged him to go celebrate with just last Thanksgiving. What would he say to overprotective Castiel that wouldn’t make him kill him on sight? To the 20-something-year-old kid who appeared in their office asking to see science-magic, to Gabriel, who last saw Spencer when helping them with a case, to Sam and Dean, who teased him so fondly over the phone. He doesn’t know sign language to tell Eileen, who made an effort to check on him despite being unable to hear. He wouldn’t know what to tell his team, after all his arrogance in asking them to listen to him and to trust him to take care of them.

So he doesn’t cry.

He despairs.

For just a moment, he lets himself revel in it—to feel hollow and regret and remorse and realize he might never be the same. Until…

“So, I take it you won’t be mad that I didn’t listen to you?”

Hotch whirls around at the sound of the voice he thought he might never hear again. There stands Spencer, whole and unharmed, Iris sitting firmly on his shoulders. And Hotch doesn’t even care anymore, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around them in a tight hug. He vaguely registers JJ coming up to them, still on the phone with the others, and confirming Spencer’s well-being.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again.” Hotch pleads, pulling back and holding him at arm's length. It seems like even Spencer is caught off guard by Hotch’s emotion, eyes wide and tears gathering in the corner of his eyes. “And, Iris,” he glances up at her, addressing her seriously for the first time. “Thank you.”